The infamous Xuixien takes us through a thought experiment on how to make the profession of mining more engaging.

This is going to be the first part in a series of editorials I'm writing dubbed "The Think Tank". In these pieces I'm going to be exploring the current state of EVE Online and some changes I think would improve the EVE experience for its players. Most of the subjects I tackle will be major and interrelated. As you read these posts, bear in mind that these are opinion pieces, and as such will not be completely free from my personal biases. Ultimately, what I care about is the health of EVE Online and the experience we all have while playing it.

There's an activity in EVE which a few love but many bear doing in the same way they bear household chores or their job: Mining. Industry saw a major overhaul with Crius, and while reprocessing and compression were changed, mining itself has been mostly untouched. I feel there is a lot of room for improvement with mining. I will be operating from two basic premises in this piece. If you feel I'm wrong about either of these premises, please feel free to let me know.

Premise One: Mining in general is a boring and dull activity, especially in "safe" areas.

Premise Two: For the level of risk involved, HiSec mining is leagues more profitable than in LowSec or NullSec.

From these two premises, I draw two conclusions:

Conclusion One: Mining needs more polish and content.

Conclusion Two: The risk:reward ratio of mining needs to be altered, making it more rewarding to do in dangerous areas.

The goals are to make mining more interesting and dynamic to engage players in this activity rather than the current iteration; CTRL-click, F1-F2, ALT-TAB. The amount of ISK/hr should also scale with the amount of effort players are willing to invest and the risks they're willing to take. CCP is on the right track with the Crius changes, but there are still a few more things that need to be done.

Polishing the Rocks

Currently ore belts in EVE Online are fairly vanilla, fairly plain, and fairly boring. Even many of the ores themselves look lackluster, with the exception of a few. Belts are very disengaging for the player warp to the belt, maybe move a few kilometers, then set up your mining lasers and alt-tab to Netflix.

EVE Online is a beautiful game, and CCP is constantly upgrading their graphics. Mining could use some love. Imagine if the ore sites that spawned around gas giants gave the player the feeling that they were mining the rings of that planet. Imagine if "Asteroid Fields" spawned between planets instead of around, and gave the impression that the miner was in a cloud of rocks. Imagine if materially dense rocks (the high-yield variants) spawned closer to the sun, and the lighter rocks appeared on the fringes of the solar system. Imagine if some ore belts were tilted the way ice belts used to be. There are a wide range of possibilities CCP can release and I would love to see them do this. Variety, as they say, is the spice of life, and a common complaint from moderately experiences newbies is that "every system is the same". This would help alleviate those feelings.

I would also like to see the contents of belts themselves updated. There are a variety of rocky objects in EVE Online, but we never see them in asteroid belts, and rarely do they appear in spawned ore sites; things like cloven asteroids, shattered asteroids, and barren rocks. Ideally these should make up a large portion of the objects on grid, with the useful ores mixed therein. There should be debris clouds and dust fields, and wrecks of derelict vessels.

"Running on Empty" in Empire

In EVE lore it is stated that demand for ore has outstripped supply. Empyreans have been eating resources at an unprecedented rate. Just a single carrier or dreadnaught represents hundreds of man hours of mining and a volume of ore mined greater than the ship itself. And this isn't taking into account supercapital proliferation. There is a massive demand for materials. In just one week in May 2014, more than 28.8 billion cubic meters of ore was mined in the entire New Eden cluster. A solo miner might take 20 years to do this, but all of New Eden accomplished this in just 7 days. In case numbers are a little abstract for you, I'll put it this way: At the rate Capsuleers are mining, they would deplete both Earth's moon and the entire asteroid belt in just a little over 2 years. This is just counting player Capsuleers; if we consider baseline NPC miners and NPC Capsuleer miners, then in no uncertain terms this should represent an environmental catastrophe.

Of course, even with Capsuleers and empires gobbling up every rock they can find, resources in EVE Online the game are infinite, limited only by daily spawns (of which there is more than enough) and the amount of time miners willing to spend mining (which also, it seems, is limitless). Since Veldspar is infinite, it actually has no inherent value. You are not actually exchanging ISK for Tritanium, but rather ISK for the time and effort the miner spent gathering it.The time is dirt cheap because most of that time the player was alt-tabbed to either another account or something unrelated to EVE. The effort is dirt cheap because virtually none is required.

Since most mining takes place in HiSec, the first change I would propose would be to reduce the amount of harvestable ore in all HiSec systems, with the most reduction taking place in 1.0 through 0.7 space. In many belts replace the ore with barren asteroids and debris fields with just a smattering of small ores throughout. Reduce the volume of remaining ores even in untouched belts. Players would have to scout for good locations instead of just jumping into any system and warping to top belt.

The availability of ore should also depend on player activity. EVE is, after all, player generated, right? Put responsibility in the hands of the players. The respawn cycle of ores, at least in HiSec, should depend on how much people are mining in HiSec. I propose a daily system that regenerates (x)m3 of each ore each day, as long as the amount of m3 mined per day in that system is above a certain threshold. Once that threshold is crossed, the mount of m3 regenerated per day will decrease. When ore is not mined, the amount of m3 regenerated increases. And all of it on a sliding scale. Each system should function independently from every other system, meaning miners can't just migrate HiSec in a circuit to always have the best spawn.

I also propose restricting ores by security status as follows, since Capsuleers and Empires have mined space dry (else why would Capsuleers want to build new Stargates?):

1.0: Only Veldspars

0.9 - 0.7: Only Veldspars and Scordites

0.6 - 0.5: All available HiSec ores.

Prospecting

Exploration is one component of EVE that is both engaging and interesting. I personally feel that exploration should be an important part of any playstyle. We all do some level of exploration in EVE. But I think this can be expanded upon.

Currently ore sites appear in the discovery scanner. The community is divided on whether or not this is a good thing, but I personally feel it was a good change, and I mine in WormHole space. However I do think there should be a bit more cat-and-mouse to finding juicy ore sites, and for those who prey on miners. CCP could add some ore sites that must be probed down, perhaps some systems would even have lucrative "hidden belts" that would require a bookmark and are hard to probe done without good skills and equipment.

Another idea I've been toying with is the idea of "rogue asteroids". These sites would show up as "Rogue Asteroid" of varying sizes; large, huge, and massive. A "Large Rogue Veldspar" might contain 500k ore. A "Huge Rogue Veldspar" might contain one million unites and a "Massive Rogue Veldspar" may even hold multiple millions. In a HiSec at least, where ores would be scarce, an anomaly containing a single rock with a million units of ore (depending on the type of ore) would be an enticing find. In dangerous space, not being immediately warpable would make these sites important.

Dare to Be Bold, Pilot

One EVE trailer that I watched years ago had the motto "dare to be bold, pilot". The entire game has traditionally been based around risk:reward, and indeed the highest bounties and the rarest ores are found in the most dangerous places. With Crius, the best manufacturing is now found in dangerous parts of space. However, 70% of players live in HiSec according to CCP. It stands to reason that most mining takes place in the relative safety of HiSec, too. But if all the best ores are in Null, why is this? The answer is simple

First, there is a high demand for lower end minerals such as Tritanium, which is found in the highest amount in Veldspar and can easily be mined uninterrupted in the relative safety of HiSec and jumped, via compression, to Null.

There is a bottle neck for minerals which are found in the greatest abundance in HiSec.

The rewards for mining in NullSec are not big enough to entice miners out of HiSec.

The first step is to balance risk:reward between HiSec and less secure areas of space. Is there some rule that low end ores, such as Veldspar, have to be the best sources of low end minerals? HiSec is currently the source of 5 of the 7 major minerals. Perhaps HiSec should only be the source of Tritanium, Pyerite, and Mexallon?

Perhaps as you move into LowSec, the ores contain more of these three minerals per batch, but higher end minerals start appearing. The best, of course, would be found in NullSec.

But it's a SANDBOX, Xui!

A lot of people will disagree with my changes concerning rebalance. Most will say that I'm breaking "the sandbox". I posit that these players do not understand the concept of a sandbox MMO. Being a sandbox, especially a sandbox based on the concept of risk:reward, does not obviate the need for balanced play. In fact, balanced play is more necessary for a sandbox MMO, as unbalanced play shatters the game.

I don't propose changes to HiSec mining as a way to nerf it and "force" people into other areas of EVE, although I do think it would be immensely beneficial to the game if more players considered playstyles that included operating in dangerous areas of space. More people in dangerous areas of space means more targets, and more targets means more PvP and content in general. This can only be accomplished if risk:reward is balanced in all areas of space. And every aspect of the game, even something as elemental as mining, should be interesting. While "nerfs" to HiSec mining might encourage people to venture into other areas of space, at the very least, players willing to take risks should be rewarded, and mining itself should be engaging and interesting for people who decide to pursue that path.

In conclusion, the changes I propose:

Add a new celestial to Overview: "Asteroid Field". These new fields would spawn in locations between the orbital paths of two planets in a system, representing the warpable location of a stellar asteroid belt (as opposed to a planetary asteroid belt).

Add a new scannable ore site, called "Rogue Asteroids", which contain a single rock with unusually high volume.

Revamp the layouts of asteroid belts and make them larger by adding objects such as "Barren Rock", and "Shattered Blue-Crystal Asteroid".

Reduce the overall availability of ores in HiSec, via removal of harvest-able belts and reduction of ore volumes, and restrict their spawns by security status.

Reduce the amount of Noxcium and Isogen that HiSec ores contain.

The amount of all minerals found in local ores scale upward with the lawlessness of the space in which they are found.

At least in HiSec, change asteroid respawns to a sliding scale that would be affected by activity levels.

I think the above changes would make mining more interesting, more engaging, and more balanced. What do you think?

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This story took place a few months ago, in march. My friends and I (4 in total) had started up a small corporation to play around in. Our fleet was composed of a Maelstrom that I flew, with T1 Guns and no Damage Control (since I couldn't fit them at the time), a Myrmidon droneboat, an exploration corax for finding wormholes and sites within, and an amarr ship that I can't recall (most likely a frigate). I bought a PLEX and sold it for about 650m, and used some of the isk to buy us a small amarr POS, fuel, personal hangar, 3 silos, and 2 small guns (forgot ammo lol). Our corax scanned a hole down next to our "staging system" (a tradepost) so I reshipped to a hurricane to go scout it out with everyone else, since my maelstrom was slow (not that a cane isn't, but.. still). We didn't see anyone, so we looked around, and found a ghost site. We warped to it and let our corax do his job.. however.. he failed his hack and the explosion destroyed his ship instantly. (I don't have a killmail for this, it doesn't show up on zkillboard). After the can exploded, we all sat there in silence for a moment pondering what just happened, until the rats warped in. The rest of my fleet managaed to warp out but the rats scrammed me before I could align. My entire life with my cane flashed before my eyes, and as I watched my ship enter structure, I kissed her goodbye and waited for my capsule to eject... only.. it never happened.The rats despawned with my ship at about 200 hull. I wanted to cry. My baby survived! I burned to the exit hole and flew my smoldering ship to the nearest repair facility, hands shaking all the way. Our corax reshipped to a caracal, and I hopped in a mammoth and we flew our POS in. Everything was quiet. We still hadn't seen any players at this point, only a POS on our dscan, but we weren't sure if it was active or not. We never checked. After everything was anchored, I took a few trips back and forth to get all the stuff we needed in, and I ended up buying small ammo before finding out you need medium ammo for small guns, so I had to go back again. Finally, we had our POS fully setup! Now it was time to rat. This was a C3 hole, and it took us about 3 hours to clear one site, after numerous warp-outs and repairs (myrmidon fitted remote armor reps to help support us, but his cap lasted about 8 seconds) we finally got one site cleared, and make about 15 million isk for our troubles, if I recall correctly. It was late so we called it a night. Woke up early the next day and our scanning caracal started looking for more sites to run, and this is where it all fell apart.. He was scanning outside the POS shields for some reason (he thought he couldn't do it inside so he flew out about 50km and did it there. As he's doing this, i'm sitting in the shields just moving things around, when a hostile ship warps right on top of him and blows him up in seconds. Along with our only set of scanning equipment. Now, this hostile ship (a deimos, I think) tries to blow up our POS guns, but I slowboat right on out of our shields and tear him a new one. Sadly my ship was not fitted with a warp scrambler of any type so he warped away in structure while I was still on shields. Couple minutes later, he's back, and shooting our guns. Again. I fly out to beat him up again, when suddenly, a loki, prophecy, and a harbinger warp on me. I turn around and run for the POS shields, but their webs slowed me just enough and I died with half of my ship in the shields. (killmail: https://zkillboard.com/kill/37814267/) Now, we were trapped inside this wormhole because we lost our scanning ship and the wormhole collapsed overnight. We had to self-destruct and leave our POS behind. My friends decided this was enough EVE and quit soon afterwords, which saddened me greatly. I've moved on but it still haunts me since there was so many things we could have done better to keep this from happening. Always bring spare scanning equipment, kids. Thanks for reading my story, learn from my mistakes, and fly safe!

~Kiokiba Eriker

TL;DR: Group of four want to live in a wormhole, lose scanning equipment and have to self-destruct.

Dedicated to: Loyalanon, The Conference Elite and the Savior of Highsec James 315

Special thanks to: Princess Suicide

“Hey Jeff! Pass me another beer will ya? All this rock chewing is making me thirsty”, Carl said. Jeff looked over to his Captain Carl, “Sorry sir the reserves have run dry, we’ve been mining for ages and I can’t even remember our last break.” The two pilots had recently saved up enough money to purchase one of ORE’s newest exhumer class vessels, “The Hulk”. It was said that this new ship was to have a mining yield not thought possible for a single craft. So Jeff and Carl sprung at the chance to get their hands on one the moment it was put up in a nearby market. They had to pay top dollar but in their eyes it was worth every last ISK spent. These days, all of the trade routes to Jita 4-4 we’re filled to the brim with pirates and other low life scum, so travel was very difficult for the non-wealthy but now they were going to be rich; it was going to be nothing but champagne and exotic dancers from here on out.

“Orca Command is saying that they keep getting weird readings on D-Scan”, Jeff said, pulling his headset off one ear. Carl looked over to Jeff, “It’s probably just more salvaging ships looking for scraps. They’re all over the place out here. Command is always a little dodgy during these ops because the CEO always jumps down their throats when he catches them asleep at the helm. Anyways, it’s High-Sec in a 0.7 no less, what is there to worry about?” Jeff thought for a moment, “Yeah… you’re right. I’ll go check down below for some more brew. Be back in a few.”

With Jeff exiting the bridge, Carl looked back to his control panel. The screen which showed his Strip Miners’ productivity beeped, announcing another cycle had completed. He glanced over to the Cargo Hold menu and touched the “Ore Bay” section. The bay was almost full; he’d have to jettison it for Orca to pick up soon. His new Hulk was definitely king in yield but man it was bothersome to have to keep watching the ore bay. In their last mining ship, Carl and Jeff would just turn on the Strip Miners and search the web but it would all be worth it because this ship was going to put them on the map. Carl leaned back and glanced out the port side view pane. Space was magnificent, endless and just chock full of possibilities. He stared out past the many mining ships of the rest of his fleet. Gazing at the suns of distant systems he’d always dreamt of traveling to, Carl could appreciate the beauty that the stars emanated but he couldn’t help but feel regret for not being more aggressive in life. He’d just figured he was only cut out to mine. It was an easy living, a safe one and well at the moment it was what he was good at. Besides he still had corp loans to pay off. So what other choice did he have? He closed his eyes and imagined the highly sophisticated life of the Amarr Socialites and how soon he would join them at their fancy parties. Now, it was only a matter of time.

“For the hundredth time yes!” Shark snapped back, “They are the only other people in local, there is no logi on the other side of any of the gates and no other corp members within 10 jumps. Now are you ready for the warp formula or not?”

“Ok sorry, sorry, I’m just a little stressed. This is nothing like Nullsec, I have a billion ISK plugged into my skull, this is my most expensive Proteus to date and this guy supposedly just wants to serve us 4 Navy Battlecruisers for dinner? I have this nagging feeling that he has something up his sleeve and if shit hits the fan you can’t do anything to help.”

“Look its 2 Brutixes a Harbinger and a Hurricane, all military, you and Cyran can do this. Now, what are your orders?”

Motoko took a moment to assess the situation. The targets knew her combat history as well as Cyran’s and were openly challenging us to a fight in something that didn’t have much of a chance of winning. Why would they do this? Was there neutral logi sitting in system somewhere or a backup fleet 2 jumps out? There was just too much about this that didn’t seem right.

So, I've been mostly single for some time now, and just recently I started seriously seeing a girl. This is relevant because up until we became serious I never really gave much thought to explaining or defending my nightly activities of playing EVE and being on comms with friends. It's just what I do, and I'll be honest that most of the time I'm a half naked lump sitting on my office chair whose seat pad is full to the brim of fart dust. Now I'm suddenly dating someone and I find myself wondering... "Is it OK if I play EVE right now?"

This self-questioning inevitably spirals onward because why would I ever deny myself something that I enjoy because of another person. I enjoy this person, so shouldn't they enjoy that I enjoy what I enjoy? Maybe there's something she enjoys that she's not enjoying because she's worried that I wont understand her joy. Clearly, this becomes exhausting and before long I'm too tired to do much else and we do other things.

I love this girl. She's a good one. We have fun, and I don't resent her at all for the obvious disruption in my EVE schedule that's taken place. Truth is I still play, but when she goes to sleep. Nothing is lost. But what's important to me is really just getting it out there that there's something else that I spend ample time with.

So, this is easy, right? Just tell her. But if I tell her, when do I tell her? During lunch? Dinner is for talking about your day, complaining about your job and talking about spaceships, right? No, that doesn't feel right. Lunch maybe sounds better. But we both work, so lunch wont work. Maybe in the morning when we wake up and we're laying in bed. That's perfect. She's comfortable, she's rested and at 6:30 in the morning there's not much sun light coming in through the blinds to cast distracting shadows on the wall while I'm talking about spaceships. But that just might be too early, I thought.

Then I had an idea to plan a date night completely revolving around the idea of just casually bringing up EVE to her at some perfect point. I'd set the kitchen counter all nice with our plastic cutlery and paper plates that do match. I'd put on some music. She'd absolutely love her favorite dish that I'd make for dinner. I'd wash and wear my one polo shirt that I own, and then nothing says I love you and want to share spaceships with you like picking fresh flowers from your neighbor's garden.

"It's amazing to see what kind of stuff people come up [with] if you give them an empty book titled 'New Eden' and tell them to write something into it." - NightlinerSGS

EVE has a pretty low player retention. It seems very few players make it past the first few months, but for many, once that hurdle is made, EVE becomes an experience that never ends. Obviously veterans tend to see this, and we often attribute it to the Sandbox.

The local asteroid belts of Onnamon and other Black Rise systems kept my newly fitted covetor busy between station docks. I knew very little about my ships controls, the space I was in, or the people I was flying with, but it was enough to get by. I kept hearing them talking of hull configurations I had never heard of. Tech this and tech that. I spent most of my evenings after a good mineral haul, browsing station databases, keeping brushed up on terminology.

"Wormhole space," they said.

"Many riches to be had," they said.

Knowing very little of wormholes and their risk or reward, it ultimately would lead to my first death in since I gained my space legs.

It's 03:00 Eve time. All's quiet in Auner until a gang of Black Watch Syndicate frigates barge into the system, with their muffled rap music playing and unnecessary chrome spinny bits on their thrusters. An executioner, two tormentors, and a punisher. The latter three go loiter at the local novice outpost, and the executioner hangs out around the small. I warp in with a Talwar in hopes that they might pick a fight that I can win.

Twigsta > come play, frigates. :)

They do not. The executioner runs away. A short while later, the two tormentors and punisher have moved on to a medium, likely with the intent of spray painting the beacon with their tag. Not on my watch. I break out the Caracal and send it flying through the gate. They've all fled in such a hurry that one of the tormentors has left its drones behind. Two Hobgoblin IIs lie abandoned in space. A paltry prize for my patience.

Twigsta > awww, no 4v1?Twigsta > you even forgot your drones!Twigsta > <loc><url>Hobgoblin II</url>Stalkerish > was kind of hoping to get those backTwigsta > hmm. Perhaps if you paid me to leave you folks alone. :)Stalkerish > well thats no fun...Reginald Sakakibara > thanks for leaving the small xDTwigsta > np. xDTwigsta > can't be everywhere, sadly!Twigsta > Tell you what! I'll leave the drones here in a can. You can try to take them if you want.Stalkerish > how about if you promise to give me 5 mil if i get them</loc>

No. No that won't do. Sure, I could twist the rules to my benefit and do some trickery, but my heart isn't into it today. I slink back to Thukker, two Hobgoblin IIs richer, and browse youtube. A few videos later, I check local again. A new message pops up! We proceeded to discuss tissue paper.

Introduce me. I have tried this game before, twice to be precise. I have blasted through the 14 day trial, and I just fell in love with this game. Because of "reasons", I can't ever seem to pay for the game, which is why I do the trial, let it expire, and come back a few months later when I have the need to play again.

Until recently, I had no idea that you could pay for the game with ISK. After asking around in rookie help on the last few days of my 14 day trial, I was sent a chat invite by another rookie. As it turns out, this "rookie" was no rookie at all! He has several accounts, and was starting up yet another one.

I asked if he paid for all of his accounts with dollars, and he said that the game paid for them. We talked a lot about ways for a trial to make enough money to plex himself to glory.

Forward a few days. I convinced 2 of my friends to come and try the game with me. I got in touch with this veteran player, and he was kind enough to extend 3 extended trials. We chose to go with Gallente, because they seem to be very versatile for starting toons, not to mention the idea of Drones sounds awesome. After we got or characters, I contacted him yet again. The first thing he told us to do was to finish the Military and Advanced Military Tutorials, and follow with the exploration tutorial. Then, he told us to make a corporation, and set it to 0% tax, that way, all of the ISK we generate remains in our wallets. We were warned about “awoxers” and told to be careful if we decided to recruit, but I think we are not going to go with that route for now.

A wonderful tale of a carebear discovering the brighter side of EVE through non-consensual PVP.

Alrighty guys, i'm not necessarily a new player (started my first character in november '07), but this character I started a mere 5 months ago (or so). Since I got back into EVE i've been trying to get a stable source of income under me, so I revert to my default money making mode which is missioning, looting, salvaging, and hauling my hard-earned rewards to Amarr once a month.

Now, i'm flying around in mostly Assault Frigates, Destroyers, and might get a cruiser soon, so my ceiling is limited to Level 3's right now. That being said, it takes quite a bit of time to make money, and i'm prone to squeezing every last bit of income out of my loot.

For the past month of doing level 3 missions, I've stored all of that loot in a single cargo container, stockpiling ISK-potential until a time I decide it's fit to clean house and move the cattle to market so to speak. This isn't as easy as loading up the hauler and hitting the bricks though. I run each meta level 3 and 4 item through a reprocessing program to figure out if it's worth more to melt it, or sell as is on the market. A cargo container takes about 4 hours of excel spread sheet tinkering until I get to where I've got a nice load of high efficiency ISK for travel. When it's all said and done I had something like 70 million worth of loot to unload. Not bad, should get me a nice bump to get me up to level 4's faster right?

SKIP TO HERE FOR THE GOOD PART IF YOU DON'T LIKE BUILD-UP YOU LAZY PRICK

So here I am, making the familiar journey from Hisoufad---> Youl ---> Amarr, not a worry in the world, and quite tired after my soul crushing data program foray. I jump into Amarr from Ashab, and something on my overview catches my eye. A Catalyst flown by a "Hannah Chase" has a strange color and symbol over it.... something red starred, not blinking.